Dunedin - chocolate & beer

Today we toured the city of Dunedin with Louise acting as our tour guide. She has been an exchange student here since February. We visited the University of Otago, her flat, the local museum, the Cadbury chocolate factory, and a local brewery - Speight's.  Have you seen the barking dog and sheep singing Happy Birthday on YouTube?  That is a Speight's commercial.  We also hiked up Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.    That is Louise and me next the to an old Cadbury delivery truck.

This morning I had my first travel boo-boo.  I managed to plug my hair dryer and converter into an outlet that couldn't handle it. I blacked out not only my own room but the Vasher's room as well. Smoke and sparks were involved. Where's a good electrician when you need one?!? The owner was very nice about it and had things working by the time we got back at the end of the day.

At dinner we all were impressed with Liz's skewer of prawns.  We also enjoyed green shelled mussels -- a unique seafood from New Zealand.

Finally - Dunedin!

We arrived in Dunedin a couple of hours ago.  On our last flight of the trip (Auckland to Dunedin) they circled for an hour due to fog and then landed in Christchurch.  We then traveled by bus to Dunedin, a 5 hour ride.  Tomorrow Louise will be our tour guide around town and we plan to tour a brewery and a chocolate factory.  Time to crash -- it's been over 30 hours since we started our trip from LA.

Visit to Manhatten Beach

Visited the beach today to kill some time before our 9:30 pm flight.  Andy, Liz, and Kevin arrived from Detroit this morning and we took the trolley to the beach.  Kevin went body surfing as the waves were rolling in.

Los Angeles by Night

Arrived in LA safely with no flight problems.  I took a tour of LA by night -- visiting Beverly Hills and Hollywood.  We walked part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theatre.  The fact that it was the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death made it even more interesting.  There were several makeshift memorials, moon dancing and singing fans, etc.  Sidewalk vendors were selling sequined gloves -- hmm...Christmas gift??

Map of New Zealand

Dunedin, NZ is approximately 10,000 miles from Southwest Harbor and is 16 hours ahead of the eastern time zone.  This is the start of their winter with highs in the 40s along the coast.  We are heading into the mountains at the beginning of the trip where I expect we will encounter snow and temps in the 20s.

I expect warmer temps as we travel north.  We will be touring the North Island on the last half of the trip and departing from Auckland.

I am packing a winter coat, a rain coat and lots of fleece.  Louise suggests wearing layers as the weather can change quickly in New Zealand.  Sounds familiar to Maine!

Getting there is half the fun?!?

I'm not sure I agree with the old adage "getting there is half the fun" when it comes to flying to New Zealand. It's a long, long way from Southwest Harbor. (see pic of SWH on left).

On Friday, June 25, I will start my trip from Bangor and fly to Los Angeles and then on Saturday evening board the flight to Auckland, NZ. It is a 13 hour flight to Auckland-- but due to crossing the international date line we will actually arrive on Monday morning. Then it's on to Dunedin, our destination on the South Island of New Zealand -- a relatively short, 2 hour flight. That is where the trip starts. (see picture of the beaches at Dunedin). Time to get back to packing...more later!